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In recent days there have been reports about a study which claims that high levels of time looking at a screen can hinder a child's development; there have also been the beginnings of a debate involving teachers about the benefits or disadvantages of smartphones in classrooms. And at the weekend it was revealed that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has closed her Facebook account. It's a strange love affair we have with social media; some people extol its usefulness; others grow ever more wary regarding its possible side-effects. There's also a tendency to link its over-use or improper use with young people. But I wonder whether this, in some cases, may be learned behaviour from parents. Recently I was in a ferry, crossing from Ireland. Two young men came into the lounge with a boy and girl between the ages of 3 and 4. They all sat together, talked about what they saw out the window, ate sandwiches and played games for over two hours. It was clear that these young men delighted in their children. A week later I was in a train when a mother and 3 year old daughter had no sooner entered the compartment and sat down than the wee girl was handed a screen while the mother opened up her mobile phone and for the rest of the journey refused to engage with her restless child. While some parents, of course, will attest the usefulness a screen can have in calming infant tantrums, a screen can never substitute for human communication. And where it is overused, I wonder if we risk showing new homage to the Victorian maxim that ‘little children should be seen and not heard’ – a perspective once encouraged by churches which sang that children should, like Jesus, be gentle, meek and mild? Those who revert to that old principal should be aware that it has no Biblical endorsement. Indeed there are at least two occasions when Jesus - far from being mild - vigorously chastises his own disciples and a rickle of priests for trying to keep children out of the limelight. And there's another instance where he has been so attentive to children playing in the street that he can quote the lyrics of their songs. Here scripture and psychology join hands in asserting that children grow up better when they are engaged than when they are ignored or entertained. And most of us, I dare say, would agree that children grow best when they know they are loved. And love – if it can be quantified – is not predicated on how much a child is given, either in terms of freedom or gadgetry. Love, in my understanding, is expressed in how much time and fond interaction is shared between the lover and the beloved. This is true of husband and wife; it is no less true of parent and child.